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For Valentine’s day we had a party and we had snacks at our party. We had so many snacks we’ve been having them this week. We brought so many snacks we even filled our counter! Earlier that week, we made Valentine’s Day bags out of construction paper. Many of us had creative ideas. There were so many Valentine’s we had to pass out it was almost crowded!

Before the Valentine’s party started we skyped Mr. Lockwood’s class. Both classrooms thought of a different state. We tried to figure out the other class’ state by only asking yes or no questions. Here were some of our jobs: Some of us were looking up information and maps on our netbooks, we had a big puzzle we could take pieces off of if we got a no, some of us had laminated maps so we could cross off the wrong states, we used a huge map on the wall, and some of us used our social studies books, and we had 2 spokespeople to ask the questions. We asked them things like “Do you have a desert in your state?” or “Does it snow where you live?” We kept getting closer and closer to their state. Finally we guessed their state! They picked Tennessee. Then they figured out our state and we picked Idaho. We thought it was fun and not really work.

In our class, we are having a book competition. The winning book will be the book of the year. Each book has a partner they go against. You can’t vote unless you have read both of the books that are competing against each other. So far, we have voted 4 books out. Our recent vote was “Dork Diaries” against “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Dork Diaries” won. Our first vote was “Junie B. Jones” versus “The Magic Tree House” and “The Magic Tree House” won. We are making predictions for the big winner and it is REALLY hard. Some of us think “Gooseberry Park” is going to win, while others prefer “Bad Kitty” or “Charlotte’s Web.” It should be an interesting vote but we’ll keep you updated!

In our class we recently celebrated Christmas. Most of us had a Christmas tree that we put ornaments on. A lot of us also helped wrap presents. Most also left Santa cookies and milk.

Although there are many similarities, we had many unique things we did too. A few of us liked to have pizza rolls on either Christmas or Christmas Eve. One of us left Santa chocolate covered popcorn and they said he loved it. Another person left him ho hos and another left him cake! One person even left him tamales with sour candy! A few of us were thoughtful and left the reindeer carrots. One of us went to Mexico and another one went to New York! Some of us were lucky enough to have a fire to sit around to relax when we weren’t in school. (A very lucky few got to have s’mores.) Over break 3 people got to visit Mickey Mouse in Disneyland.

We were very lucky to get to see some snow over break. Where we live in Arizona, we don’t see snow very often.

This week we’ve been learning about time especially half-past, and quarter til/past. We also started to learn about elapsed time. It’s a little bit tricky but we’re going to get it!

For Christmas we made ornaments. For our first one we got golden ornaments! First we used a glue gun to put a belt around the ornament with zig zag ribbon. Then we used our fingerprints, dipped in paint to create a string of lights. Our second ornament was a snowflake. We really enjoyed making them.

Last week we made salt dough maps and included our favorite landforms. The salt dough was made with salt, flour, and water. The teacher next door made a big batch for both classes. It felt sticky and stuck to us! Some of us could feel the tiny pieces of salt. It kind of felt like play-doh too. When we got the dough we had to look at a map we drew as a rough draft, then create those landforms on our continent. Then we had to let them dry for a few days. After they dried we got to paint them and wait for them to dry again. While the landforms dried, we worked on a poster convincing people to come to our continent. We picked three landforms we liked about our continent, name them, and then write about them. Some of the landforms were cool like a river that flowed through an island where you could see wild animals but the animals wouldn’t hurt you! On one island there was a gulf that changed colors. Wouldn’t you want to visit that?!

We just came back from Thanksgiving break. We talked about what we did for Thanksgiving and a lot of us had things in common. Most of us ate turkey and mashed potatoes, and some of us had tamales. For thanksgiving a lot of us helped our family, played games, and we watched the parade. The day before Thanksgiving we had school. We made paper turkeys, we watched about a mouse on the Mayflower, and we got to run a turkey trot. We ran many laps to help our class.

We have been learning about maps. We drew a rough draft of the country we are making up. We’ve also been studying the continents and oceans. Today we did a project too. We cut out the 7 continents and 5 oceans. We painted paper plates blue and glued the continents onto the plate.

Santa’s secret shop is located at our school. Santa’s shop is a place where you can buy gifts for others for Christmas or other holidays. It’s only at school during December, not for every holiday.

Bonus super hard question this week!

What continent changes shape depending on the season? Comment below if you know the answer or want to make a guess!

We started a project about landforms. Right now we have to write the definition of different landforms. After we were done with the definitions, we had to go on the internet and look up pictures of those landforms. Then we get to draw our own pictures of the landform. After we are done we get to create our own country with landforms on it. We even get to name our country whatever we want! We are almost done writing the definitions and pictures. We are really excited to create our own countries.

We have been learning about different kinds of measurement like gallons and grams. Our teacher told us a story about a king who invented the ruler. One day we got a quart, a gallon, a cup, and a pint container. We poured water in some of the containers to see if they could fill a gallon. Another day we used a balance to see how much they weighed. We used grams and compared it to paperclips or linking cubes.

We have good news! We got to move back to our old classroom! One day we helped Mr. Lee, our janitor, by moving some of our little things back to the room. The workers had to take some of our walls out but now it’s fixed.

What kind of landform do you live near? Comment below with your answer!

We are doing a webquest in our classroom! A webquest is when you get an animal and your paper gives you questions. Then, you have to look the answers up on the internet. Each group got an animal that lives in Arizona. Our animals were; the Gila monster, ring tailed cat, the rattlesnake, and the Arizona Bark Scorpion.

We have been learning about fractions on a number line. We learned that you can do fractions on a number line or using fraction strips. Number lines never end. We learned fractions are part of a whole. We also learned that different fractions can be equal to others or are equivalent.

We read a story about myth and fables. Fables have a lesson at the end called a moral. A myth is a story that tells either about nature or how something in the world was created.

Last week our school celebrated something we call Fall Treat Night. We danced and got candy. We got to go to each teacher’s door and get candy from them. There was a haunted house in the gym.

Do you have a special animal that lives in your state? Can you leave a comment about your animal?

A lot has been happening in third grade! In math, we have been learning about comparing fractions and which is greater or less. We have learned if the numerators are equal to each other, then you have to look on the bottom (denominator). The greater the denominator the smaller the pieces are and the smaller the denominator the bigger the pieces are. Some of us remember that denominator means the bottom part of the fraction because it’s ‘da bottom.’

We have been learning a lot about main idea and details. We learned if the whole story is about something, then it is the main idea. Today we played a game with our teacher. Someone would be a thinker, then other people would read a slip of paper. After they finished reading out loud the thinker had to decide what they all had in common. Then the group decided if each paper went in main idea or details category. TOP SECRET TIP: Typically the main idea of a paragraph is in the first or last sentences. If you can’t find it, look at the second sentence.

Our teacher taught us a game called 10’s go fish. First, you need a deck of cards. Then, you take out the jacks, queens, kings, and jokers. Next, each player gets 7 cards. They need to find matches that equal 10, for example 8 and 2. When you ask your partner you look at what you have and figure what you need to equal 10 and that’s the card you ask for.

Update: We are still in the same room. We have decide it makes us sneeze. We are still competing to win in the walk, jog, run club. We found out, 2 other teachers are beating us so we’ve been trying to do more laps. Are you competing in anything?

We just returned from fall break and you’ll never guess what happened! Our classroom flooded over fall break. The rain was raining really hard one night that it was raining cats and dogs! It rained so much the classroom flooded. So now we have to go to a different room for school. They had to put fans in our room so it could dry. We do have most of the stuff we need in our new room. We’re hoping to move back soon.

In math we have been learning about fractions. For fractions when you say it you have to had a ‘th’ to the end of the number when you say it. We have a magic word too, it is equal! Before break, we even used m&m’s to practice fractions.

In the morning there is something called “Walk, Jog, Run club.” What it is, is before we have recess and if we’d like we can choose to run, walk, or jog. Our PE teacher gives us a card and she gives our card a hole punch for each lap we do. Once we hit 10, we get a foot charm for our hard work. Our class currently is in first place ahead of the 5th grade teacher, Mr. Lockwood. Does your school have competitions?

Have you done fractions this year? Here’s a problem for you!

Mrs. Huelskamp has 10 Reese’s cups. She ate 3 of them. What fraction does she have left?

This week we have been writing letters to our pen pals. Our pen pals live in Ohio and are in second grade. Mrs. Murphy used to work with our pen pals teacher. We discussed how to write a friendly letter before sending our letters. We wrote a rough draft and then a final copy. We each got our own personal pen pal to write. We hope they write us back!

We have continued to work on our Native American research project. We’ve learned about some weapons they use. Some tribes use bow and arrow, clubs, dart guns, and spears. They have different clothes than what we’re used to wearing. They sometimes use feathers on their heads and sometimes put white make up on their faces. Many wore deer skin outfits. We also learned about their homes. Some homes were teepees, others were made out of sticks, mud, clay, or even cow dung.

One thing we’ve really loved doing this week is partitioning shapes into equal parts. Mrs. Murphy would draw a shape on the board and make us cut them into equal pieces. We thought it was really funny we realized some students didn’t cut the shape into equal pieces. Mrs. Murphy pretended it was cake and gave them the smallest piece. We have really learned a lot about it!

It is a busy week in third grade! Today we took our math benchmark. Some of us thought it was ok, and others thought it was easy.

We just started a big project on Native Americans. We each were given a tribe and then we thought of our own questions about that tribe. We’re going to answer our questions by doing research ALL BY OURSELVES! We’ll keep you updated on our progress.

This week and next, our school is collecting pennies for patients. We learned that we are collecting pennies for people who have a blood cancer called Leukemia. We learned how many children can get this so we hope to save some lives!

In math, we really like doing centers. Some of our favorites include using the computers, flashcards (with a friend!), doing some review problems in our red workbooks, and some like working with the teacher.